With a few days off, I finally got around to working on a new body for my SC-10 R/C truck. I bought the truck used back in November, and the body on it was trashed. Tires had worn through the paint in the tops of the fenders, every corner was ripped and flapping around, and it was about as visually exciting as a Keanue Reeves movie.

There were a number of options available for the truck from both the OEM (Team Associated) and aftermarket supplies. Prices ranged from $30-$50. There are likely differences I’ll never be aware of, but for me, I decided the $30 OEM body (a Ford) was just fine for me.

Now, the tricky part of working on these things, is the bodies are made of Lexan. Lexan, is a flexible, tough but a rather ‘oily’ feeling plastic, so you need a good paint. One that will adhere to the material, and is formulated with a lot of flex agent in it. These bodies take a beating!

$12 for two cans of spray paint and a couple of hours in the garage, and I was underway. The kit comes with masks for the windows, which were easy apply. This makes the production of a decent looking shell (body) a lot easier. It’s also supplied with a few of the standard Team Associated body decals. There are no sponsor decals in the kit I purchased.

One thing some readers might not be aware of, is that they shells (bodies) are painted on the insider, not the outside. This has a variety of benefits:

• Durability – these things crash, A LOT and paint on the outside of the bodywork would not last long. The decals are very thick vinyl, and they still show the wear of normal abuse
• Aesthetics – which is akin to the durability already mentioned, however, when one paints these shells, one can be, well, I’ll just say that one can be less than meticulous in your painting, and yet the appearance is always bright, shiny and smooth (at least until you send the thing sliding down the track on it’s roof, which you will do).
• Others – there may be others, but at this late hour, I’m unable to consider them

Now, not only do you paint these on the inside, which requires some planning. You can’t simply paint over a mistake, it’s there, on ‘top’ of the paint, for all to see. You can’t just ‘re-paint’ over a mistake. So, plan wisely, paint the darkest colors first, then go to the lightest. Often it’s best to finish up with a white ‘backing’ color.

After the pain is applied, next you’ll need to get out another special tool, Lexan compatible scissors, to cut the vacuum formed shell to it’s final shape. Cutting out the wheel openings, wings (if it’s equipped with such), number boards, etc. It take a little time to get one of these things from this:

To this:

And finally this:

From start to finish, it took about 36 hours (wall clock) to complete. Effort required, about 3 hours for masking, painting and trimming. And, a lot of waiting while it cured.

I’m pretty happy with the final result, and the old used SC10 looks right at home with it’s brand new stable mates, an Associated T4.1 Truck and an Associated SC10 Short Course (Makita RockStar):

Unfortunately, in the first lap running full-power with the Mod SC10, I blew up the roller-ball limited slip differential. But, that’s an article for another day: